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Advent Sunday

A Reading from the Catechetical Lectures of Cyril of Jerusalem

We do not preach only one coming of Christ, but a second as well, much more glorious than the first. The first coming was marked by patience; the second will bring the crown of a divine kingdom.

In general, what relates to our Lord Jesus Christ has two aspects. There is a birth from God before the ages, and a birth from a virgin at the fullness of time. There is a hidden coming, like that of rain on fleece, and a coming before all eyes, still in the future.

At the first coming he was wrapped in swaddling clothes in a manger. At his second coming he will be clothed in light as in a garment. In the first coming he endured the cross, despising the shame; in the second coming he will be in glory, escorted by an army of angels. We look then beyond the first coming and await the second. At the first coming we said: ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’ At the second we shall say it again; we shall go out with the angels to meet the Lord and cry out in adoration: ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’

The Saviour will not come to be judged again, but to judge those by whom he was judged. At his own judgement he was silent; then he will address those who committed the outrages against him when they crucified him and will remind them: ‘You did these things, and I was silent.’

His first coming was to fulfil his plan of love, to teach us by gentle persuasion. This time, whether we like it or not, we will be subjects of his kingdom by necessity. Malachi the prophet speaks of the two comings. ‘And the Lord whom you seek will come suddenly to his temple’: that is one coming.

Again he says of another coming: ‘Look, the Lord almighty will come, and who can endure the day of his coming, or who will stand in his sight? Because he comes like a refiner’s fire, a fuller’s soap, and he will sit refining and cleansing.’

These two comings are also referred to by Paul in writing to Titus: ‘The grace of God the Saviour has appeared to all humanity, instructing us to put aside impiety and worldly desires and live temperately, uprightly, and religiously in this present age, waiting for the joyful hope, the appearance of the glory of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ.’ Notice how he speaks of a first coming for which he gives thanks, and a second, the one we still await.

That is why the faith we profess has been handed on to you in these words: ‘He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.’

Our Lord Jesus Christ will therefore come from heaven. He will come at the end of the world, in glory, at the last day. For there will be an end to this world, and the created world will be made new.

alternative reading

A Reading from a sermon of Bernard of Clairvaux

We have come to understand a threefold coming of the Lord. The third coming lies between the other two. Two of the comings are clearly visible, but the third is not. In the first coming the Lord was seen on earth, dwelling among us; and as he himself testified, they saw him and hated him. In his final coming ‘all flesh shall see the salvation of our God,’ and ‘they will look on him whom they pierced.’ The intermediate coming is hidden, in which only his chosen recognise his presence within themselves and their souls are saved. In his first coming our Lord came in our flesh and in our weakness; in the intermediate coming he comes in spirit and in power; in his final coming, he will be seen in glory and majesty.

This intermediate coming is like a road on which we travel from his first coming to his last. In the first, Christ was our redemption; in the last, he will appear as our life; in his intermediate coming, he is our comfort and our rest.

Lest anyone should think that what we are saying about this intermediate coming is our own fancy, listen to what our Lord himself says in the gospel: ‘If any love me, they will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.’ There is also another passage in Scripture which reads: ‘Those who fear the Lord will do good.’ But something more is said about those who love God, and that is that they will keep God’s word. And where are his words to be kept if not in our heart? As the prophet says: ‘I have kept your words in my heart lest I sin against you.’

Think of the word of God in the way you think of your food. When bread is kept in a bin, a thief can steal it, or a mouse can find its way in and gnaw it, and eventually, of course, it goes mouldy. Once you have eaten your bread, you have nothing to fear from thieves, mice or mould! In the same way, treasure the word of God, for those who keep it are blessed. Feed on it, digest it, allow its goodness to pass into your body so that your affections and whole way of behaviour is nourished and transformed. Do not forget to eat your bread and your heart will not wither. Fill your soul with God’s richness and strength.

If you keep the word of God in this way, without doubt it will keep you also. The Son with the Father will come to you. The great prophet who will restore Jerusalem will come to you and make all things new. The effect of his coming will be that just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly, so we shall also bear the likeness of the heavenly. Just as the old Adam used to possess our being and control us, so now let Christ, the second Adam, who created us and redeemed us, take possession of us whole and entire.

alternative reading

A Reading from a poem by Joseph Addison

When rising from the bed of death

When rising from the bed of death,

O’erwhelmed with guilt and fear,

I see my Maker face to face,

O how shall I appear?

If yet, while pardon may be found,

And mercy may be sought,

My heart with inward horror shrinks,

And trembles at the thought;

When thou, O Lord, shalt stand disclosed

In majesty severe,

And sit in judgement on my soul,

O how shall I appear?

But thou hast told the troubled mind,

Who does her sins lament,

The timely tribute of her tears

Shall endless woe prevent.

Then see the sorrows of my heart

Ere yet it be too late;

And hear my Saviour’s dying groans,

To give those sorrows weight.

For never shall my soul despair

Her pardon to procure,

Who knows thine only Son has died

To make her pardon sure.

alternative reading

A Reading from a poem by Rowan Williams

Advent Calendar

He will come like last leaf’s fall.

One night when the November wind

has flayed the trees to bone, and earth

wakes choking on the mould,

the soft shroud’s folding.

He will come like the frost.

One morning when the shrinking earth

opens on mist, to find itself

arrested in the net

of alien, sword-set beauty.

He will come like dark.

One evening when the bursting red

December sun draws up the sheet

and penny-masks its eye to yield

the star-snowed fields of sky.

He will come, will come,

will come like crying in the night,

like blood, like breaking,

as the earth writhes to toss him free.

He will come like child.

Monday after Advent 1

A Reading from Le Milieu Divin by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

We are sometimes inclined to think that the same things are monotonously repeated over and over again in the history of creation. That is because the season is too long by comparison with the brevity of our individual lives, and the transformation too vast and too inward by comparison with our superficial and restricted outlook, for us to see the progress of what is tirelessly taking place in and through all matter and all spirit. Let us believe in revelation, once again our faithful support in our most human forebodings. Under the commonplace envelope of things and of all our purified and salvaged efforts, a new earth is being slowly engendered.

One day, the gospel tells us, the tension gradually accumulating between humanity and God will touch the limits prescribed by the possibilities of the world. And then will come the end. Then the presence of Christ which has been silently accruing in things, will suddenly be revealed – like a flash of light from pole to pole. Breaking through all the barriers within which the veil of matter and the water-tightness of souls have seemingly kept it confined, it will invade the face of the earth. And, under the finally-liberated action of the true affinities of being, the spiritual atoms of the world will be borne along by a force generated by the powers of cohesion proper to the universe itself, and will occupy, whether within Christ or without Christ (but always under the influence of Christ), the place of happiness or pain designated for them by the living structure of the Pleroma. ‘As lightning comes from the East and shines as far as the West ... as the flood came and swept them all away... so will be the coming of the Son of Man.’ Like lightning, like a conflagration, like a flood, the attraction exerted by the Son of Man will lay hold of all the whirling elements in the universe so as to reunite them or subject them to his body. ‘Wherever the body is, there will the eagles be gathered together.’

Such will be the consummation of the divine milieu.

As the gospel warns us, it would be vain to speculate as to the hour and the modalities of this formidable event. But we have to expect it.

Expectation – anxious, collective and operative expectation of an end of the world, that is to say of an issue for the world – that is perhaps the supreme Christian function and the most distinctive characteristic of our religion.

Tuesday after Advent 1

A Reading from a sermon of John Henry Newman

Year passes after year, silently; Christ’s coming is ever nearer than it was. O that, as he comes nearer earth, we may approach nearer heaven!

O my brethren, pray him to give you the heart to seek him in sincerity. Pray him to make you in earnest. You have one work only, to bear your cross after him. Resolve in his strength to do so. Resolve to be no longer beguiled by ‘shadows of religion’, by words, or by disputings, or by notions, or by high professions, or by excuses, or by the world’s promises or threats. Pray him to give you what Scripture calls ‘an honest and good heart’, or ‘a perfect heart’, and, without waiting, begin at once to obey him with the best heart you have. Any obedience is better than none, – any profession which is disjoined from obedience, is a mere pretence and deceit. Any religion which does not bring you nearer to God is of the world. You have to seek his face; obedience is the only way of seeking him. All your duties are obediences.

If you are to believe the truths he has revealed, to regulate yourselves by his precepts, to be frequent in his ordinances, to adhere to his Church and people, why is it, except because he has bid you? And to do what he bids is to obey him, and to obey him is to approach him. Every act of obedience is an approach, an approach to him who is not far off; though he seems so, but close behind this visible screen of things which hides him from us. He is behind this material framework; earth and sky are but a veil going between him and us; the day will come when he will rend that veil, and show himself to us. And then, according as we have waited for him, will he recompense us. If we have forgotten him, he will not know us; but ‘Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching. He shall gird himself, and make them sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants.’ May this be the portion of every one of us! It is hard to attain but it is woeful to fail.

Life is short; death is certain; and the world to come is everlasting.

Wednesday after Advent 1

A Reading from the Letter of Clement of Rome to the Church in Corinth

We should entreat the Creator of the universe with heartfelt prayer and supplication that the full sum of his elect, as it has been numbered throughout the world, may be preserved intact through his beloved child Jesus Christ. For through him he has called us out of darkness into light, from ignorance into the full knowledge of the glory of his name.

Teach us, Lord, to hope in that name which is the source and fount of all creation. Open the eyes of our hearts to know you, who alone are highest among the highest, forever holy among the holy. You bring to nothing the schemings of the proud, and frustrate the devices of the nations. You raise up the humble on high, and the lofty you cast down. Riches and poverty, death and life, are all in your hand; you alone are the discerner of every spirit, and the God of all flesh. Your eyes survey the depths and scrutinise our human achievements; you are the aid of those in danger, the Saviour of those that despair, the Creator and guardian of everything that has breath. By you the nations of the earth are increased; and from them you have chosen out such as love you through your dear child Jesus Christ, by whom you have taught us, made us holy and brought us to honour.

Grant us, Lord, we beseech you, your help and protection. Deliver the afflicted, pity the humble, raise up the fallen, reveal yourself to the needy, heal the sick, bring home your wandering people, feed the hungry, ransom the prisoners, support the weak, comfort the faint-hearted. Let all the nations of the earth know that you alone are God, that Jesus Christ is your child, and that we are your people and the sheep of your pasture.

Lord, you brought to light the eternal fabric of the universe, and created the world. From generation to generation you are faithful, righteous in judgement, glorious in might and majesty, wise in what you have created, prudent in what you have established. To look around us is to see your goodness everywhere; to trust in you is to know your loving kindness.

O merciful, O most compassionate, forgive us our sins and offences, our mistakes and our shortcomings. Do not dwell upon the sins of the sons and daughters who serve you, but rather make us clean with the cleansing of your truth. Direct our paths until we walk before you in holiness of heart, and our works are good and pleasing in your sight and in the sight of those who govern us. Yes, Lord, may your face shine upon us for our good; and so shall we be sheltered by your mighty hand, and saved from all wrongdoing by your out-stretched arm. Deliver us from all who hate us without reason; and to us and to all people grant peace and concord, as you did to our forebears when they called devoutly upon you in faith and truth.

Thursday after Advent 1

A Reading from The Spirit of Love by William Law

Nothing wills or works with God but the spirit of love, because nothing else works in God himself. The almighty brought forth all nature for this end only, that boundless love might have its infinity of height and depth to dwell and work in, and all the striving and working properties of nature are only to give essence and substance, life and strength, to the invisible hidden spirit of love, that it may come forth into outward activity and manifest its blessed powers, that creatures born in the strength, and out of the powers of nature, might communicate the spirit of love and goodness, give and receive mutual delight and joy to and from one another.

All below this state of love is a fall from the one life of God, and the only life in which the God of love can dwell. Partiality, self, mine, thine, etc., are tempers that can only belong to creatures that have lost the power, presence, and spirit of the universal Good. They can have no place in heaven, nor can be anywhere, but because heaven is lost. Think not, therefore, that the spirit of pure, universal love which is the one purity and perfection of heaven and all heavenly natures has been or can be carried too high or its absolute necessity too much asserted. For it admits of no degrees of higher or lower, and is not in being till it is absolutely pure and unmixed, no more than a line can be straight till it is absolutely free from all crookedness.

All the design of Christian redemption is to remove everything that is unheavenly, gross, dark, wrathful, and disordered from every part of this fallen world. And when you see earth and stones, storms and tempests, and every kind of evil, misery, and wickedness, you see that which Christ came into the world to remove, and not only to give a new birth to fallen man, but so to deliver all outward nature from its present vanity and evil and set it again in its first heavenly state. Now if you ask how came all things into this evil and vanity, it is because they have lost the blessed spirit of love which alone makes the happiness and perfection of every power of nature.

Friday after Advent 1

A Reading from a commentary on the psalms

by Augustine

‘All the trees of the forest will exult before the face of the Lord, for he has come, he has come to judge the earth.’ The Lord has come the first time, and he will come again. At his first coming, his own voice declared in the gospel: ‘Hereafter you shall see the Son of Man coming upon the clouds.’ What does he mean by ‘hereafter’? Does he not mean that the Lord will come at a future time when all the nations of the earth will be striking their breasts in grief’? Previously he came through his preachers, and he filled the whole world. Let us not resist his first coming, so that we may not dread the second.

What then should Christians do? We ought to use the world, not become its slaves. And what does this mean? It means having, as though not having. So says the Apostle: ‘Beloved, the appointed time is short: from now on let those who have wives live as though they had none; and those who mourn as though they were not mourning; and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing; and those who buy as though they had no goods, and those who deal with this world as though they had no dealings with it. For the form of this world is passing away. But I wish you to be without anxiety.’ The one who is without anxiety waits without fear until the Lord comes. For what sort of love of Christ is it to fear his coming? Do we not have to blush for shame? We love him, yet we fear his coming. Are we really certain that we love him? Or do we love our sins more? Therefore let us hate our sins and love him who will exact punishment for them. He will come whether we wish it or not. Do not think that because he is not coming just now, he will not come at all. He will come, you know not when; and provided he finds you prepared, your ignorance of the time of his coming will not be held against you.

‘He will judge the world with equity and the peoples in his truth.’ What are equity and truth? He will gather together with him for the judgement his chosen ones, but the others he will set apart; for he will place some on his right, others on his left. What is more equitable, what more true than that they should not themselves expect mercy from the judge, who themselves were unwilling to show mercy before the judge’s coming. Those, however, who were willing to show mercy will be judged with mercy. For it will be said to those placed on his right: ‘Come, blessed of my Father, take possession of the kingdom which has been prepared for you from the beginning of the world.’ And he reckons to their account their works of mercy: ‘I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me drink.’

What is imputed to those placed on his left side? That they refused to show mercy. And where will they go? ‘Depart into the everlasting fire.’ The hearing of this condemnation will cause much wailing. But what has another psalm said? ‘The just will be held in everlasting remembrance.’

Do you, because you are unjust, expect the judge not to be just? Or because you are a liar, will the truthful One not be true? Rather, if you wish to receive mercy, be merciful before he comes; forgive whatever has been done against you; give of your abundance. Of whose possessions do you give, if not from his? If you were to give of your own, it would be largess but since you give of his, it is restitution. ‘For what have you that you have not received?’ These are the sacrifices most pleasing to God: mercy, humility, praise, peace, charity. Such as these, then, let us bring and, free from fear, we shall await the coming of the judge ‘who will judge the world in equity and the peoples in his truth’.

Saturday after Advent 1

A Reading from the Instructions of Columbanus

How blessed, how fortunate, are ‘those servants whom the Lord will find watchful when he comes’. Blessed is the time of waiting when we stay awake for the Lord, the Creator of the universe, who fills all things and transcends all things.

How I wish he would awaken me, his humble servant, from the sleep of slothfulness, even though I am of little worth. How I wish he would enkindle me with that fire of divine love. The flames of his love burn beyond the stars; the longing for his overwhelming delights and the divine fire ever burn within me!

How I wish I might deserve to have my lantern always burning at night in the temple of my Lord, to give light to all who enter the house of my God. Give me, I pray you, Lord, in the name of Jesus Christ, your Son and my God, that love that does not fail so that my lantern, burning within me and giving light to others, may be always lighted and never extinguished.

Jesus, our most loving Saviour, be pleased to light our lanterns, that they may burn for ever in your temple, receiving eternal light from you, the eternal light, to lighten our darkness and to ward off from us the darkness of the world.

Give your light to my lantern, I beg you, my Jesus, so that by its light I may see that holy of holies which receives you as the eternal priest entering among the columns of your great temple. May I ever see you only, look on you, long for you; may I gaze with love on you alone, and have my lantern shining and burning always in your presence.

Loving Saviour, be pleased to show yourself to us who knock, so that in knowing you we may love only you, love you alone, desire you alone, contemplate only you day and night, and always think of you. Inspire in us the depth of love that is fitting for you to receive as God. So may your love pervade our whole being, possess us completely, and fill all our senses, that we may know no other love but love for you who are everlasting. May our love be so great that the many waters of sky, land and sea cannot extinguish it in us: for ‘many waters cannot quench love.’

May this saying be fulfilled in us also, at least in part, by your gift, Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom be glory for ever and ever.

The Second Sunday of Advent

A Reading from the Letter to Diognetus

With goodness and kindness, like a king who sends his son, who is also a king, God sent God, the Word, among us. He sent him to save us through persuasion rather than violence, for there is no violence in God. He sent him to call us rather than to accuse us; he sent him to love us rather than to judge us.

No one has either seen God or made him known; it is God himself who has revealed himself. And he has manifested himself through faith, to which alone it is given to behold God. For God, the Lord and Creator of the universe, who made all things and arranged them in orderly fashion, has shown himself to be not only filled with love for us but also to be long-suffering in his dealings with us. Yes, he has always been, is, and will remain the same: kind, good, free from wrath, true, and the only one who is good; and he formed in his mind a great and ineffable plan which he communicated to his Son alone.

As long as he held and preserved his own wise counsel in concealment, he appeared to neglect us and to have no concern for us. But after he revealed through his beloved Son and manifested what things he had prepared from the beginning, he conferred every blessing all at once upon us, so that we should both share in his benefits and see and be active in his service. Who of us would ever have expected these things? God had thus disposed everything on his part with his Son, but until these last times he has permitted us to be borne along by unruly impulses, drawn away by the desire of pleasure and various lusts. This does not mean that God took the slightest delight in our sins but that he simply endured them; nor did he approve this time of iniquity, but rather in no way consented to it. Instead he was preparing for the present time of righteousness so that, convinced of our unworthiness to obtain life during that time on account of our faults, we might now become worthy of it through the effect of the divine goodness; and so that, after we had been shown incapable of entering into the kingdom of God by our own efforts we might become capable of doing so by the divine power.

He took on himself the burden of our iniquities, and he gave his own Son as a ransom for us, the holy one for transgressors, the blameless one for the wicked, the just one for the unjust, the incorruptible one for the corruptible, the immortal one for the mortal. Where except in the justice of God could we find that with which to cover our sins? By whom could we be justified – we who are wicked and ungodly – except by the only Son of God? What a wondrous exchange, operation, and unexpected benefits! The crime of so large number is covered over by the justice of a single just one.

In the past, God first needed to convince our nature of its inability to obtain life for itself. Now God has shown us the Saviour capable of saving even what was impossible to save. In these two ways, he willed to lead us to trust in his goodness, to esteem him as our nourisher, Father, teacher, counsellor, healer, and our wisdom, light, honour, glory, power and life.

Monday after Advent 2

A Reading from a homily of Origen

We read these words in the prophet Isaiah: ‘A voice cries out: In the desert prepare the way of the Lord! Make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.’ The Lord wishes to find a way by which he might enter your hearts and walk therein. Prepare this way for him of whom it is said: ‘Make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.’ The voice cries out in the desert: ‘Prepare the way.’ This voice first reaches our ears; and then following it, or rather with it, the Word penetrates our understanding. It is in this sense that Christ was announced by John.

Let us see, therefore, what the voice announces concerning the Word. ‘Prepare,’ says the voice, ‘the way of the Lord.’ What way are we to prepare for the Lord? Is it a material way? Can the Word of God take such a way? Ought we not rather to prepare an inner way for the Lord by making the paths of our heart straight and smooth? Indeed, this is the way by which the Word of God enters in order to take up his abode in the human heart made ready to receive him.

How great is the human heart! What width and capacity it possesses, provided it is pure! Do you wish to know its greatness and width? Look at the extent of the divine knowledge that it embraces. It tells us itself: ‘God gave me sound knowledge of existing things that I might know the organisation of the universe and the force of its elements, the beginning and the end and the mid-point of times, the changes in the sun’s course and the variations of the seasons. Cycles of years, positions of the stars, natures of animals, tempers of beasts, powers of the winds and thoughts of people, uses of plants and virtues of roots.’

Thus, you see that the human heart knows so many things and is of no small compass. But notice that its greatness is not one of size but of the power of thought by which it is capable of knowing so many truths.

In order to make everyone realise how great the human heart is, let us look at a few examples taken from everyday life. We still retain in our minds all the towns which we have ever visited. Their features, the location of their squares, walls, and buildings remain in our hearts. We keep the road which we have travelled painted and engraved in our memories; and the sea over which we have sailed is harboured in our silent thought. As I have just said, the human heart knows so many things and is of no small compass.

Now, if it is not small, and if it can grasp so much, we can prepare the way of the Lord there and make straight the way where the Word, the Wisdom of God, will walk. Let each of you, then, prepare the way of the Lord by a good conscience; make straight the way so that the Word of God may walk within you without stumbling and may give you knowledge of his mysteries and of his coming.

Tuesday after Advent 2

A Reading from a sermon of Bernard of Clairvaux

‘Behold, the name of the Lord comes from afar.’ Who could doubt these words of the Prophet? Something superlative was needed in the beginning if the majesty of God was to deign to come down from such a height, for a dwelling so unworthy of it.

And there was, indeed, something superlative about it; great mercy, immense compassion, and abundant charity. Why did Christ come to earth? We shall find the answer without difficulty, since his words and actions clearly reveal to us the reason for his coming.

It is to search for the hundredth lost sheep that came down hurriedly from the hillside. He came because of us, so that the mercies of the Lord might be revealed with greater clarity, and his wonderful works for humankind. What amazing condescension on the part of God, who searches for us, and what great dignity bestowed on the one thus sought!

If we want to glory in it, we can quite reasonably do so, not because we can be anything in ourselves, but because the God who created us has made us of such great worth. Indeed, all the riches and glory of this world, and all that one could wish for in it, is a very small thing and even nothing, in comparison with this glory. ‘What are we that you make much of us, or pay us any heed?’

But then again, I should like to know why Christ determined to come among us himself and why it was not, rather, we who went to him. Surely, it was for our benefit. What is more, it is not the custom of the rich to go to the poor, even if it is their intention to do something for them.

It was, therefore, really our responsibility to go to Jesus: but a double obstacle prevented it. For our eyes were blind, and he dwells in inaccessible Light. We were lying paralysed on our pallet, incapable of reaching the greatness of God.

That is why, in his immense goodness, our Saviour, the doctor of our souls, came down from his great height and tempered for our sick eyes the dazzling brightness of his glory. He clothed himself, as it were, with a lantern, with that luminous body, I mean, free from every stain, which he put on.

Wednesday after Advent 2

A Reading from a commentary on the psalms

by Augustine

God established a time for his promises and a time for their fulfilment. The time for promises was in the time of the prophets, until John the Baptist; from John until the end is the time of fulfilment.

God, who is faithful, put himself in our debt, not by receiving anything but by promising so much. A promise was not sufficient for him; he chose to commit himself in writing as well, as it were making a contract of his promises. He wanted us to be able to see the way in which his promises were redeemed when he began to discharge them. And so the time of the prophets was the foretelling of the promises.

He promised eternal salvation, everlasting happiness with the angels, an immortal inheritance, endless glory, the joyful vision of his face, his holy dwelling in heaven, and after resurrection from the dead, no fear of dying. This is as it were his final promise, the goal of all striving. When we reach it, we shall ask for nothing more. But as to the way in which we are to arrive at our final goal, he has revealed this also, by promise and prophecy.

He has promised humankind divinity, mortals immortality, sinners justification, the poor a rising to glory. But because God’s promises seemed impossible to human beings – equality with the angels in exchange for mortality, corruption, poverty, weakness, dust and ashes – God not only made a written contract with them to win their belief but also established a mediator of his good faith, not a prince or angel or archangel, but his only Son. He wanted, through his Son, to show us and give us the way he would lead us to the goal he has promised.

It was not enough for God to make his Son our guide to the way; he made him the way itself that we might travel with him as leader, and by him as the way.

Therefore, the only Son of God was to come among us, to take our human nature, and in this nature to be born as a man. He was to die, to rise again, to ascend into heaven, to sit at the right hand of the Father, and to fulfil his promises among the nations, and after that to come again, to exact now what he had asked for before, to separate those deserving anger from those deserving his mercy, to execute his threats against the wicked, and to reward the just as he had promised.

All this had therefore to be prophesied, foretold, and impressed on us as an event in the future, in order that we might wait for it in faith, and not find it in a sudden and dreadful reality.

Thursday after Advent 2

A Reading from a treatise On the Value of Patience by Cyprian of Carthage

Patience is a precept for salvation given us by our Lord and teacher: ‘Whoever endures to the end will be saved.’ And again, ‘If you persevere in my word, you will truly be my disciples; you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’

We must, therefore, endure and persevere if we are to attain the truth and freedom we have been allowed to hope for; faith and hope are the very meaning of our being Christians, but if faith and hope are to bear their fruit, patience is necessary.

We do not seek glory now, in the present, but we look for future glory, as St Paul instructs us when he says: ‘By hope we were saved. Now hope which is seen is not hope: how can we hope for what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it in patience.’ Patient waiting is necessary if we are to be perfected in what we have begun to be, and if we are to receive from God what we hope for and believe.

In another place the same apostle instructs and teaches the righteous, and those active in good works, and those who store up for themselves treasures in heaven through the reward God gives them. They are to be patient also, for he says: ‘Therefore while we have time, let us do good to all, but especially to those who are of the household of the faith. But let us not grow weary in doing good, for we shall reap our reward in due season.’

Paul warns us not to grow weary in good works through impatience, not to be distracted or overcome by temptations and so give up in the midst of our pilgrimage of praise and glory, and allow our past good deeds to count for nothing because what was begun falls short of completion.

Finally the apostle Paul, speaking of charity, unites it with endurance and patience. ‘Charity,’ he says, ‘is always patient and kind; it is not jealous, is not boastful, is not given to anger, does not think evil, loves all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.’ He shows that charity can be steadfast and persevering because it has learned how to endure all things.

And in another place he says: ‘Bear with one another lovingly, striving to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.’ He shows that neither unity nor peace can be maintained unless we cherish each other with mutual forbearance and preserve the bond of harmony by means of patience.

Friday after Advent 2

A Reading from the Proslogion of Anselm of Canterbury

O Lord my God,

teach my heart where and how to seek you,

where and how to find you.

Lord, if you are not here but absent,

where shall I seek you?

but you are everywhere, so you must be here,

why then do I not seek you?

Surely you dwell in light inaccessible –

where is it?

and how can I have access to light which is inaccessible?

Who will lead me and take me into it

so that I may see you there?

By what signs, under what forms, shall I seek you?

I have never seen you, O Lord my God,

I have never seen your face.

Most High Lord,

what shall an exile do

who is as far away from you as this?

What shall your servant do,

eager for your love, cast off far from your face?

He longs to see you,

but your countenance is too far away.

He wants to have access to you,

but your dwelling is inaccessible.

He longs to find you,

but he does not know where you are.

He loves to seek you,

but he does not know your face.

Lord, you are my Lord and my God,

and I have never seen you.

You have created and re-created me,

all the good I have comes from you,

and still I do not know you.

I was created to see you,

and I have not yet accomplished that for which I was made.

How wretched is the fate of man

when he has lost that for which he was created.

How hard and cruel was our Fall.

What has man lost, and what has he found?

What has he left, and what is left to him?

O Lord, how long shall this be?

How long, Lord, will you forget us?

How long will you turn your face away from us?

When will you look upon us and hear us?

When will you enlighten our eyes and show us your face?

When will you give yourself back to us?

Look upon us, Lord,

hear and enlighten us.

Show us your very self.

Take pity on our efforts and strivings toward you,

for we have no strength without you.

Teach me to seek you,

and when I seek you show yourself to me,

for I cannot seek you unless you teach me,

nor can I find you unless you show yourself to me.

Let me seek you in desiring you

and desire you in seeking you,

let me find you by loving you,

and love you in finding you.

Saturday after Advent 2

A Reading from a commentary on the prophecy of Isaiah

by Eusebius of Caesarea

‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight the paths of our God.’ The prophecy makes clear that it is to be fulfilled, not in Jerusalem but in the wilderness: it is there that the glory of the Lord is to appear, and God’s salvation is to be made known to all the world.

This prophecy was fulfilled historically and literally when in the wilderness by the river Jordan John the Baptist proclaimed God’s saving presence, and there God’s salvation was indeed seen. The words of the prophecy were fulfilled when Christ and his glory were made manifest: after his baptism the heavens opened, and the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove rested on him, and the Father’s voice was heard, bearing witness to the Son: ‘This is my beloved Son, listen to him.’

The prophecy meant that God was to come to a deserted place, inaccessible from the beginning. None of the pagans had any knowledge of God, since his holy servants and prophets were kept from approaching them. The voice commands that a way be prepared for the Word of God: the rough and trackless ground is to be made level, so that our God may find a highway when he comes. ‘Prepare the way of the Lord’: the way is the preaching of the gospel, the new message of consolation, ready to bring to all humanity the knowledge of God’s saving power.

‘Climb on a high mountain, O bearer of good news to Zion. Lift up your voice in strength, O bearer of good news to Jerusalem.’ These words of Isaiah harmonise very well with the meaning of what has gone before. They refer opportunely to the evangelists and proclaim the coming of God among us, after speaking of the voice crying in the wilderness. Mention of the evangelists suitably follows the prophecy on John the Baptist.

What does Zion mean if not the city previously called Jerusalem? This is the mountain referred to in that passage from Scripture: ‘Here is Mount Zion where you dwelt.’ Elsewhere the Apostle says: ‘You have come to Mount Zion.’ Does not he refer to the company of the apostles, chosen from the former people of the circumcision?

This indeed is the Zion, the Jerusalem, that received God’s salvation. It stands aloft on the mountain of God, that is, it is raised high on the only-begotten Word of God. It is commanded to climb the high mountain and announce the word of salvation. Who is the bearer of the good news but the company of the evangelists? And what does it mean to bear the good news but to preach to all nations, but first of all to the cities of Judah, the coming of Christ on earth?

The Third Sunday of Advent

A Reading from a sermon of Augustine

John is the voice, but the Lord ‘is the Word who was in the beginning’. John is the voice that lasts for a time; from the beginning Christ is the Word who lives for ever.

Take away the word, the meaning, and what is the voice? Where there is no understanding, there is only a meaningless sound. The voice without the word strikes the ear but does not build up the heart. However, let us observe what happens when we first seek to build up our hearts. When I think about what I am going to say, the word or message is already in my heart. When I want to speak to you, I look for a way to share with your heart what is already in mine. In my search for a way to let this message reach you, so that the word already in my heart may find a place also in yours, I use my voice to speak to you. The sound of my voice brings the meaning of the word to you and then passes away. The word which the sound has brought to you is now in your heart, and yet it is still also in mine.

When the word has been conveyed to you, does not the sound seem to say: ‘The word ought to grow, and I should diminish?’ The sound of the voice has made itself heard in the service of the word, and has gone away, as though it were saying: ‘My joy is complete.’ Let us hold on to the word; we must not lose the word conceived inwardly in our hearts.

Do you need proof that the voice passes away but the divine Word remains? Where is John’s baptism today? It served its purpose, and it went away. Now it is Christ’s baptism that we celebrate. It is in Christ that we all believe; we hope for salvation in him. This is the message the voice cried out.

Because it is hard to distinguish word from voice, even John himself was thought to be the Christ. The voice was thought to be the word. But the voice acknowledged what it was, anxious not to give offence to the word. ‘I am not the Christ,’ he said, ‘nor Elijah nor the prophet.’ And the question came: ‘Who are you, then?’ He replied: ‘I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way for the Lord.’

‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness’ is the voice of one breaking the silence. ‘Prepare the way for the Lord,’ the voice says, as though it were saying: ‘I speak out in order to lead him into your hearts, but he does not choose to come where I lead him unless you prepare the way for him.’

‘To prepare the way’ means to pray well; it means thinking humbly of oneself. We should take our lesson from John the Baptist. He is thought to be the Christ; he declares he is not what they think. He does not take advantage of their mistake to further his own glory. If he had said, ‘I am the Christ,’ you can imagine how readily he would have been believed, since they believed he was the Christ even before he spoke. But he did not say it; he acknowledged what he was. He pointed out clearly who he was; he humbled himself. He saw where his salvation lay. He understood that he was a lamp, and his fear was that it might be blown out by the wind of pride.

Monday after Advent 3

A Reading from a treatise Against Heresies by Irenaeus

God is the glory of humankind. We are the vessels which receive God’s action, his wisdom and power.

Just as the skill of a doctor is revealed in the care of his patients, so the nature of God is revealed through the way he relates to us. This is the background behind Paul’s statement: ‘God has made the whole world prisoner of unbelief that he may have mercy on all.’ Paul was speaking of the entire human race who were disobedient to God, cast off from immortality, but who then found mercy, receiving through the Son of God their adoption as God’s children.

If we, without being puffed up or boastful, come to a true evaluation of created things and their divine Creator who, having brought them into being, sustains them through his power; and if we persevere in God’s love, in obedience and gratitude to him, then we will receive greater glory from him. Moreover, it will be a glory which will grow ever brighter as we gradually assume the likeness of him who died for us.

He it was who took on the likeness of our sinful flesh to condemn sin and purge the flesh of its errors. He came to invite us to become like himself, commissioning us to be imitators of God, and establishing us in a way of life, grounded in obedience to the Father, that would lead to the vision of God, endowing us with power to receive the Father. He is the Word of God who dwelt among us and became the Son of Man to open the way for us to receive God, for God to dwell with us according to the will of the Father.

That is why the Lord himself gave as the sign of our salvation the one who was born of the Virgin, Emmanuel. It was ‘the Lord himself who saved them’, for of ourselves we had no power to be saved. For this reason Paul regularly refers to the weakness of human nature, and says: ‘I know that no good dwells in my flesh.’ By this he means that the blessing of salvation comes not from us but from God. Again, he says: ‘O wretched man that I am! Who will save me from this body doomed to die?’ And then, in answer to his own question, he speaks of a liberator, ‘the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ’.

Isaiah says the same: ‘Hands that are feeble, grow strong! Knees that are weak, be firm! Hearts that are faint, take courage! Fear not – behold, our God is coming in judgement and he will repay. He himself will come and save us.’ We cannot save ourselves: it is only with the help of God that we are saved.

Tuesday after Advent 3

A Reading from a commentary on St John’s Gospel

by Augustine

Behold, even lamps bear witness to the day because of our weakness, for we cannot bear to look at the brightness of the day. Indeed, in comparison with unbelievers, we Christians are even now light; as the Apostle says: ‘There was a time when you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Well, then, live as children of light.’ And elsewhere he says: ‘The night is far spent; the day is at hand. Let us cast off deeds of darkness and put on the armour of light. Let us live honourably as in daylight.’

Yet, in comparison with the light of that day which is to come, even the day in which we now find ourselves is still night. ‘We possess,’ says the Apostle, ‘the prophetic message as something altogether reliable. Keep your attention closely fixed on it, as you would on a lamp shining in a dark place until the first streaks of dawn appear and the morning star rises in your hearts.’

Therefore, when our Lord Jesus Christ comes, he will as the apostle Paul also says, ‘bring to light what is hidden in darkness and manifest the intention of our hearts’, that everyone may receive praise from God. Then, in the presence of such a day, lamps will not be needed. No prophet shall then be read to us; no book of an apostle shall be opened. We shall not require the witness of John; we shall have no need of the gospel itself. Accordingly, when all these are taken away, all the Scriptures – which in the night of the world were as lamps kindled for us that we might not remain in darkness – shall also be taken out of the way, that they may not shine as if we needed them. Then the messengers of God by whom these were ministered to us shall themselves, together with us, behold that true and clear light. You shall see that very light, from which a ray was sent aslant and through many windings into your dark heart, in its purity, for the seeing and bearing of which you are being purified. John himself says: ‘Dearly beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall later be has not yet been revealed. We know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.’

Wednesday after Advent 3

A Reading from The Coming of God by Maria Boulding

The New Testament hope that Christ will come again is in some way earthed in our own expectations, fears and desires. If modern men and women are to be more than simply agnostic about the long-term prospects for our race, their most fundamental hope must be that it will not end in meaningless destruction. If we are going to blow ourselves out of existence as though we had never been, or make our planet uninhabitable without finding alternative accommodation, there is little point in hoping for anything else. To believe that the human race will eventually reach the end of its earthly pilgrimage is one thing; to equate the end with total, blind destruction is another. It is sad that the latter prospect is what many moderns term ‘apocalyptic’, if they use the word at all.

The hope that we are travelling towards a destiny, rather than a mere collapse, is linked with the faith that our origins were already purposeful. If we think that our existence is a mere fluke, the result of some wildly improbable mix in some primal soup that threw up the conditions required to sustain life, then our whole human story is a chance bubble; it has no purpose and can be pricked as meaninglessly as it was formed. But if there is a Creator who stands outside the whole cosmic evolutionary process, and yet works his will within it by a wisdom and love that are present in its every tiniest movement, then human life has a purpose. It begins from God and is on its way to a goal which, however unimaginable, will give meaning to the whole adventure.

We cannot comfort ourselves with wishful thinking. We instinctively admire the courage of those who squarely face the possibility that human life is simply absurd, that there is no future at all, and that the only honourable option is to live with dignity and kindness as we wait for our meaningless extinction. Courageous as it is, however, this view is not convincing, for it leaves too much unexplained. Deeply rooted in our experience is an obstinate certainty that our best intuitions will prove to have been the truest, and no mockery. We also want justice, however we may fear it or fall short in practising it ourselves. Our hearts demand that the very rough and uneven scheme of distribution in this life shall be redeemed within a larger justice.

No deus ex machina solution will satisfy our deepest desires; we could not rest content with an end which was mere comforting, the awakening from a bad dream to find that all the evil has been unreal after all. We know that if our instinct for truth is to be trusted, the whole sin of the world in which we are all accomplices must be taken with absolute, ultimate seriousness, and shown up for what it is in the light of God’s holiness. Only so will our own responsibility and freedom be respected.

Thursday after Advent 3

A Reading from The Throne of David by Gabriel Hebert

The Epistle to the Hebrews begins at once with the statement that God, who of old spoke to the fathers through the prophets in many fragmentary ways, has at the close of the pre-Messianic age spoken to us in his Son. We notice first that it is one and the same God who spoke both in the Old Covenant and in the New; when we join with the Church to confess the truth of the gospel concerning Jesus the Messiah, we are thereby confessing that the messianic hope of the Old Testament was a true hope. It is quite insufficient to say that the prophecies which express that hope are religiously valuable. It is necessary to affirm that God was preparing a messianic kingdom, and that the prophets were right in looking for such a kingdom, to be established by his act.

We notice secondly that he is said to have spoken by the prophets, in many fragments and in many modes. It was not only that different prophets had different styles, and that God also spoke through laws and rites and liturgical poems; but that the visions conveyed by these various modes were fragmentary and incomplete. Thus Isaiah saw one vision, and Ezekiel another, and there was the testimony both of the sacrificial rituals and of the prophets’ criticisms of sacrifice. It is only in the Son of God that there is an integral embodiment of the messianic idea, so that it can be seen as a whole; he who fulfils the messianic expectation gathers up all the strands in one. From a survey of the Old Testament alone it would be impossible to produce a satisfactory statement of the messianic idea, since it would be impossible to know certainly which elements in it were primary and which secondary, and it is not till the fulfilment has come that the various elements fall into place.

Thus the Old Testament is at once the word of God and not the final word of God. It is an imperfect, provisional, preparatory covenant, needing to be made complete in the Messiah. It represents a stage in the education of the people of God.

Friday after Advent 3

A Reading from the Meditations of Richard Challoner

In the office appointed for this holy time, the Church frequently puts us in mind of the mission and preaching of St John the Baptist, and of the manner in which he endeavoured to prepare the people for Christ; to the end that we may learn from the doctrine of this great forerunner of our Lord, in what dispositions we ought also to be if we would duly prepare the way for him. Now what the Baptist continually preached to the people was: that they should turn from their evil ways, and do penance, because the kingdom of heaven was at hand; that they should bring forth fruits worthy of penance, if they would escape the wrath to come–and this without delay – for that now the axe was laid at the root of the tree, and that every tree that did not bring forth good fruit should be cut up and cast into the fire. That they should not flatter themselves with the expectation of impunity or security, because they had Abraham for their father; for that God was able to raise up from the very stones children to Abraham; and therefore without a thorough conversion from their sins, they were to expect that the kingdom of God, and the grace and dignity of being children of Abraham (the father of all the faithful) should be taken away from them and given to the Gentiles. He added, that he baptized them indeed with water unto penance; but that another should come after him that should ‘baptize them with the Holy Ghost and with fire; that his fan was in his hand, and that he should thoroughly cleanse his floor, and gather his wheat into the barn; but the chaff he would burn with unquenchable fire’. This was the way St John prepared the people for Christ; and it is by conforming ourselves in practice to these his lessons at this holy time, that we must also prepare the way of the Lord, and be prepared for him.

Christians, this is our great business at this holy time, if we hope to prepare ourselves for Christ; this is the proper exercise for it – to pass over in our mind in the bitterness of our soul, all our years that have been spent in sin; to bewail and lament every day of this holy season, all our past treasons against the divine majesty; to turn now to God with our whole heart; to offer our whole souls to him; to exercise ourselves in his love, and to enter into new articles with him of an eternal allegiance, with a full determination of rather dying than being any more disloyal to him; and letting not one day pass without offering him some penitential satisfaction for our past guilt, to be united to and sanctified by the passion and death of our Lord Jesus Christ. O how happy are they that employ the time of Advent in this manner! O how willingly will our Lord, at the approaching Christmas, communicate himself to such souls as these!

Saturday after Advent 3

A Reading from the treatise The City of God by Augustine

After recalling the great promise of God to David and the assurances by which he so strongly confirmed it, the psalmist feared that people might think this promise was fulfilled in Solomon. To counter this hope and the disillusion that it would give rise to, he continues: ‘Yet you, O Lord, have rejected and spurned your Anointed.’

What is being referred to here is what happened to Solomon’s kingdom in his successors, down to the devastation of the earthly Jerusalem which was the capital of his kingdom, and especially down to the destruction of the very temple that Solomon had built. But lest anyone might think that God had been unfaithful to his promises, the psalmist immediately adds: ‘You have postponed the coming of your Anointed.’ If the coming of the Anointed of the Lord has been postponed, he cannot therefore be identified with Solomon or even with David himself.

It is indeed true that all the kings of the Jews, who were anointed with the mystic chrism, were called the anointed of the Lord. Not only David and his successors were thus described, but Saul also who was the first to be anointed as king of the people of the Jews and whom David himself called the Lord’s anointed.

There was, however, but one true Christ or ‘Anointed’, of whom David and his successors were but types by virtue of their prophetic anointing. In saying that his coming was postponed, the psalmist is merely speaking from the viewpoint of those who had identified him in their thoughts with David or Solomon, whereas according to the plan and preparations of God he was to come at his own proper time.

The psalm here continues with a narrative of what happened during the interval of this delay to the kingdom of the earthly Jerusalem where hope in the eventual reign of the Anointed One, promised by the Lord, was kept alive and strong: ‘You have renounced the covenant with your servant, and defiled his crown in the dust. You have broken down all his walls; you have laid his strongholds desolate. All who pass by the way have plundered him; he is made the reproach of his neighbours. You have exalted the right hands of his foes, you have gladdened all his enemies. You have turned back his sharp sword and have not sustained him in battle. You have deprived him of his lustre and hurled his throne to the ground. You have shortened the days of his youth; you have covered him with shame.’

All these misfortunes were visited upon the enslaved Jerusalem, though some of her kings reigned as heirs of the free Jerusalem from on high; they regarded their office as a role in a divine dispensation that was temporary and preparatory; they believed with a true faith that God would eventually establish the kingdom of the heavenly Jerusalem, of which they were heirs; and they placed all their hope in the one true Christ, who was to come.

Fourth Sunday of Advent

A Reading from a treatise Against Heresies by Irenaeus

The Lord came into his own creation in a visible way: his own creation sustained him who sustains everything in being. His obedience on the tree of the cross reversed the disobedience at the tree in Eden; the good news of the truth announced by an angel to Mary, a virgin who was shortly to be married, undid the evil lie that had seduced Eve, a virgin also espoused to a husband.

Just as Eve was seduced by the word of an angel and fled from God after disobeying his word, so Mary in her turn welcomed the good news by the word of an angel that she should sustain God in obedience to his word. As Eve was seduced into disobeying God, so Mary was persuaded into obeying God; thus the Virgin Mary became the advocate of the virgin Eve. Just as the human race fell into bondage to death by means of a virgin, so now it is rescued by a virgin. The disobedience of one has been counter-balanced by the obedience of the other.

Christ gathered all things into one by gathering them into himself. He declared war against our enemy, crushed and trampled on the head of the one who at the beginning had taken us captive in Adam, in accordance with God’s words to the serpent in Genesis: ‘I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall watch for your head, and you shall watch for his heel.’

The one who is described as watching for the serpent’s head is the one who was born in the likeness of Adam from the Virgin. This is the seed spoken of by Paul in the Letter to the Galatians: ‘The Law of works was in force until the seed should come to whom the promise was made.’ This fact is stated even more clearly in the same letter when he says: ‘When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman.’ Indeed, the enemy would not have been defeated fairly if the vanquisher had not been born of a woman, because it was through a woman that the enemy had gained mastery over humanity in the beginning, setting himself up as our adversary.

That is why the Lord proclaims himself to be the Son of Man, the one who renews in himself that first man from whom the race born of woman has derived. As by one man’s defeat our race fell into the bondage of death, so by another’s victory we were to rise again to life.

The Eight Days of Prayer before Christmas

A Reading from The Experience of Prayer by Sebastian Moore and Kevin Maguire

In the time of the year’s darkness,

At the Winter Solstice,

We embraced the darkness

And we chose the madness

Of chaos and oblivion;

Because we chose to shut our eyes

To the darkness that was there,

And saw in the fantastic lights

That swam in our fevered eyes

A glimmer of daylight in the distance;

And this we chose, and called it Light;

Called it Light and the Will of God,

Because we had learned, living in the dark,

To identify God with the unseen light;

And in extremity we comforted ourselves

With the hope of a light we did not see.

We hoped for a light and called it God;

And so, with screwed-up eyes and heated mind,

We said we saw a glimmer and we called it God.

Yet we were in the darkness all the time,

And our fevered crazy choosing

Chose the one thing that it would not see:

That which strikes terror to the marrow of the heart;

The dark, the dark, the awful total night.

And so, for all our crazy games and blundering,

Wrapped in the darkness, we have stumbled on

The one thing that we feared and fled so long.

In the darkness we have found the centre of darkness,

And we are overwhelmed by a strange, dark, power.

This is a knowledge we have lived in constantly,

And yet had kept it hidden from our minds.

But this is now the ending of our day.

That regal splendour of our lighted world.

Now can our eyes spring free to see the night,

And the darkness that is vibrant with our God.

17 December

O Sapientia

O Wisdom, coming forth from the mouth of the Most High,

and reaching mightily from one end of the earth to the other,

ordering all things well:

Come and teach us the way of prudence.

A Reading from a letter of Leo the Great

There is no point in asserting that our Lord, the son of the Virgin Mary, was truly and completely human if he is not believed to be of that stock from which the gospel informs us that he came.

Matthew says: ‘An account of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.’ He then charts Christ’s human origin, tracing his lineage down to Joseph to whom the Lord’s mother was betrothed. Luke, on the other hand, works backwards step by step, tracing his succession from the origins of the human race, in order to show that the first Adam and the last Adam were of the same nature.

The almighty Son of God could have come to teach and justify humankind with only the outward appearance of our humanity, just as he appeared to the patriarchs and prophets. As, for example, when he wrestled with Jacob, or when he conversed with the patriarchs, or when he did not refuse their hospitality to the point of even sharing the food they set before him. Such outward appearances pointed to this man Jesus. They had a hidden meaning which proclaimed that his reality would be taken from the stock of his forebears.

Thus God’s plan for our reconciliation, formed before all eternity, was not realised by any of these prefigurations. As yet, the Holy Spirit had not come upon the Virgin nor had the power of the Most High overshadowed her. Only then, would the Word become flesh within her inviolate womb, in which Wisdom would build for herself a house. Then, too, the Creator of ages would be born in time and the nature of God would join with the nature of the slave in the unity of one person. He through whom the world was created would himself be brought forth in the midst of all creation.

If this new humanity, made in the likeness of sinful flesh, had not assumed our old nature; if he, who is one in being with the Father, had not accepted to be one in being with the mother; if he who is alone free from sin had not united our nature to himself, then we would still be held captive under the power of the devil. We would have gained nothing from the victor’s triumph if the battle had been fought outside the arena of our nature.

But, by means of this marvellous sharing, the mystery of our rebirth has shone upon us. We are reborn in newness of spirit through the same Spirit through whom Christ was conceived and born. This is why John the evangelist speaks of those who believe as those ‘who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God’.

18 December

O Adonaï

O Adonaï, and leader of the House of Israel,

who appeared to Moses in the fire of the burning bush

and gave him the law on Sinai:

Come and redeem us with an outstretched arm.

A Reading from the treatise The Refutation of all Heresies attributed to Hippolytus of Rome

As Christians we do not put our faith in empty phrases; we are not carried off by sudden floods of emotion; we are not seduced by smooth and eloquent speeches. On the contrary, we put our faith in words spoken by the power of God, spoken by the Word himself at God’s command. It was God’s purpose to turn us away from disobedience, not by using force so that we end up reduced to the status of slaves, but rather by addressing to our free will a call to liberty.

The Word spoke first of all through the prophets. But because the message was announced obscurely in language that was often misconstrued, in these last days the Father sent the Word in person. He was to be manifested visibly, so that the world could see him and be saved.

We know that the Word assumed a body from the Virgin and, through this new creation refashioned our fallen nature. We know that he was fully human, formed from the same clay as ourselves. If it were not so, then his command to imitate him as our teacher would be a futile exercise. If he were of a different substance from me, then why does he command me, weak as I am, to do as he did? The call to goodness would be undermined by the claims of justice.

But to show that he was no different from us, he undertook hard work, he went hungry and thirsty, he rested and slept. He did not shirk suffering, he submitted to death and revealed the resurrection. In all this he was offering us his own self, so that when suffering is our lot in life we do not lose heart, but will rather recognise that because we share with him a common humanity, we can expect to receive from God an identical reward.

When we have come to know the true God, both our bodies and our souls will be immortal and incorruptible. We will gain the kingdom of heaven because while on earth we knew the king of heaven. Freed from evil inclinations, from suffering whether of body or soul, we will discover ourselves companions of God and co-heirs with Christ. Indeed we will have become divine. All that we suffer in this mortal life, God permits as part of our human condition. All that belongs to God, he has promised to give us when we have been deified and have been made immortal.

This, then, is what it means to know yourself: to recognise and acknowledge in ourselves the God who made us in his image. If we do this, we know that we in turn will be recognised and acknowledged by our Creator.

19 December

O Radix Jesse

O Root of Jesse, standing as a sign to the people,

before whom kings shall shut their mouths

and nations shall seek:

Come and deliver us and do not delay.

A Reading from the Letter of Clement of Rome to the Church in Corinth

It stands written in Scripture: ‘Behold, the Lord is taking a people for himself from out of the midst of the nations, gathering the first-fruits from his threshing-floor; for from that nation shall come forth the Holy of Holies.’ Let any commendation of us come from God, and not from ourselves because self-praise is repugnant to God. Testimony to our good deeds is for other people to give, as it was once given to those righteous people whom we number as our forebears in the faith. Self-assertion, self-conceit, and arrogance are characteristics of those alienated from God; it is those who display consideration to others, who are unassuming and peaceful who win God’s blessing.

Let us focus our efforts, then, on receiving his blessing, and identify which roads lead to it. Examine the early pages of history; what was it that caused our father Abraham to be blessed? Was it not his faith which prompted him to acts of righteousness and truth? Isaac’s confident faith in the future gave him courage to stretch himself out upon the altar. As for Jacob, who meekly left his own country on account of his brother, and went to serve Laban, to him God gave leadership of the twelve tribes of Israel.

Now anyone who honestly examines any of these instances will recognise the magnitude of the gifts which God bestows. It is from Jacob that all the priests and Levites who serve the altar of God have descended. And from him also, according to the flesh, has descended the Lord Jesus. From Jacob have come kings and princes and governors in a line of descent that may be traced back to Judah; while the leaders of the other tribes which also sprang from him, have no small claim to fame of their own. Indeed, God promised this when he said: ‘Your posterity will be like the stars of heaven.’

On all the patriarchs great honour and fame were bestowed; but not for their own sakes, or because of their own achievements, or even because of the good works they did, but by the will of God. In the same way we too, who have been called in Christ Jesus by God’s will, are not justified by ourselves or our wisdom or our intelligence or godliness, or even by any good deeds we may have done in holiness of heart, but solely by that faith through which almighty God has justified his children since the beginning of time. Glory be to him for ever and ever. Amen.

What must we do, then, my brothers and sisters? Should we relax our efforts at doing good, or give up trying to exercise Christian love? God forbid! On the contrary, let us be sincerely, even passionately, eager for every opportunity to do good. Even the architect and Lord of the universe himself rejoices in his works. Good works not only embellished the lives of the upright, they are an adornment which God himself delights in. With such examples, we too should be sparing no effort to obey the will of God, and putting all our energies into living the Christian life.

20 December

O Clavis David

O Key of David, and sceptre of the House of Israel,

who opens and no one can shut,

who shuts and no one can open:

Come and bring the prisoners from the prison house,

those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.

A Reading from a sermon of Bernard of Clairvaux

You have heard, O Virgin, the announcement of a great mystery, and you have heard how it will happen. You have double reason for astonishment and rejoicing. ‘Rejoice,’ therefore, ‘O Daughter of Zion, and be exceedingly glad, O Daughter of Jerusalem.’ And since to you have been given tidings of joy and gladness, let us hear that joyous reply we long for, so that the bones that have been broken may rejoice. You have heard what is to happen, I say, and you have believed. Believe also the way you have heard it is to happen. You have heard that you will conceive and bear a son. You have heard that it will be not by a man, but by the Holy Spirit.

The angel is waiting for your answer: it is time for him to return to the One who sent him. And we too are waiting, O Lady, for this word of mercy, we who are overwhelmed by misery under sentence of condemnation. The price of our salvation is being offered to you. If you consent, we shall be set free straight away. In the eternal Word of God we have all been made, and look, we are dying. By one small word of yours in answer we shall be restored and brought back to life.

Adam asks this of you, O loving Virgin, poor Adam, exiled from paradise with all his poor children. Abraham begs this of you; David begs this of you; all the holy patriarchs, your very own fathers, beg this of you, as do those who dwell in the valley of the shadow of death. The whole world is waiting, kneeling at your feet. And rightly so, for on your lips hangs the comfort of the afflicted, the redemption of captives, the deliverance of the damned; in a word, the salvation of all the sons and daughters of Adam, your entire race.

Give your answer quickly, my Virgin. My Lady, speak the word which earth and hell, and heaven itself are waiting for. The very king and Lord of all, ‘he who desires your beauty’, is eager for your answer and assent, by which he proposes to save the world. You have pleased him by your silence: you will please him even more by your word.

If you let him hear your voice, then he will let you see our salvation. Is not this what you have been waiting for, what you have been weeping for and sighing after day and night in your prayers? Answer, O Virgin, answer the angel quickly; or rather, through the angel answer God. Speak the word and receive the Word. Offer what is yours and conceive what is God’s. Breathe one fleeting word and embrace the eternal Word.

Why delay? Why be afraid? Believe, speak, receive! Let your humility be clothed with courage, and your reserve with trust. In such circumstances, O prudent Virgin, do not fear presumption, for although the reserve which makes you silent is attractive, how more important at this juncture is it for your goodness to speak.

O Blessed Virgin, open your heart to faith, your lips to speak, your womb to your Creator. Behold, the long-desired of the nations is standing at the door and knocking. Oh, what if he should pass by because of your delay and again in sorrow you should have to begin to seek for him whom your soul loves? Rise up, then, run and open! Arise by faith, run by the devotion of your heart, open by consent.

And Mary said, ‘Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. Let it be done unto me according to your word.’

21 December

O Oriens

O Dayspring, splendour of light eternal and Sun of Righteousness:

Come and enlighten those who dwell in darkness

and the shadow of death.

A Reading from a commentary on St Luke’s Gospel by Ambrose of Milan

The angel revealed the message to the Virgin Mary, giving her a sign to win her trust. The angel told her of the motherhood of an old and barren woman to show that God is able to do all that he wills. When she hears this Mary sets out for the hill country. She does not disbelieve God’s word: she feels no uncertainty over the message or doubt about the sign. She goes eager in purpose, dutiful in conscience, hastening for joy.

Filled with God, where would she hasten but to the heights? The Holy Spirit does not proceed by slow, laborious efforts. Quickly, too, the blessings of her coming and the Lord’s presence are made clear: as soon as ‘Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb, and she was filled with the Holy Spirit’.

Notice the contrast and the choice of words. Elizabeth is the first to hear Mary’s voice, but John is the first to be aware of grace. Elizabeth hears with the ears of the body, but John leaps for joy at the meaning of the mystery. She is aware of Mary’s presence, but he is aware of the Lord’s: a woman aware of a woman’s presence, the forerunner aware of the pledge of our salvation. The women speak of the grace they have received while the children are active in secret, unfolding the mystery of love with the help of their mothers, who prophesy by the spirit of their sons.

The child leaps in the womb; the mother is filled with the Holy Spirit, but not before her son. Once the son has been filled with the Holy Spirit, he fills his mother with the same Spirit. John leaps for joy, and the spirit of Mary rejoices in her turn. When John leaps for joy Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit, but we know that though Mary’s spirit rejoices she does not need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Her son, who is beyond our understanding, is active in his mother in a way beyond our understanding. Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit after conceiving John, while Mary is filled with the Holy Spirit before conceiving the Lord. Elizabeth says: ‘Blessed are you because you have believed.’

You also are blessed because you have heard and believed. A believing soul both conceives and brings forth the Word of God and acknowledges his works.

Let Mary’s soul be in each of you to proclaim the greatness of the Lord. Let her spirit be in each to rejoice in the Lord. Christ has only one mother in the flesh, but we all bring forth Christ in faith. Every soul receives the Word of God if only it keeps chaste, remaining pure and free from sin, its modesty undefiled. The soul that succeeds in this proclaims the greatness of the Lord, just as Mary’s soul magnified the Lord and her spirit rejoiced in God her Saviour. In another place we read: ‘Magnify the Lord with me.’ The Lord is magnified, not because the human voice can add anything to God but because he is magnified within us. Christ is the image of God, and if the soul does what is right and holy, it magnifies that image of God in whose likeness it was created and, in magnifying the image of God, the soul has a share in its greatness and is exalted.

22 December

O Rex Gentium

O King of the Nations, and their desire,

the cornerstone making both one:

Come and save us, whom you formed from the dust.

A Reading from a commentary on St Luke’s Gospel by the Venerable Bede

Mary said: ‘My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour.’

The Lord has exalted me by a gift so great, so unheard of, that language is useless to describe it; and the depths of love in my heart can scarcely grasp it. I offer then all the powers of my soul in praise and thanksgiving. As I contemplate his greatness, which knows no limits, I joyfully surrender my whole life, my senses, my judgement, for my spirit rejoices in the eternal Godhead of that Jesus, that Saviour, whom I have conceived in this world of time.

‘The Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name.’

Mary looks back to the beginning of her song, where she said: ‘My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord.’ Only the soul for whom the Lord in his love does great things can proclaim his greatness with fitting praise and encourage those who share her desire and purpose, saying: ‘Join with me in proclaiming the greatness of the Lord; let us magnify his name together.’

Those who know the Lord, yet refuse to proclaim his greatness and sanctify his name to the limit of their power, ‘will be called least in the kingdom of heaven’. His name is called holy because in the sublimity of his unique power he surpasses every creature and is far removed from all that he has made.

‘He has come to the help of his servant Israel for he has remembered his promise of mercy.’

In a beautiful phrase Mary calls Israel the servant of the Lord. The Lord came to his aid to save him. Israel is an obedient and humble servant, in the words of Hosea: ‘Israel was a servant, and I loved him.’

Those who refuse to be humble cannot be saved. They cannot say with the prophet: ‘See, God comes to my aid; the Lord is the helper of my soul.’ But ‘anyone who makes himself humble like a little child is greater in the kingdom of heaven.’

‘The promise he made to our forebears, to Abraham and his children for ever.’ This does not refer to the physical descendants of Abraham, but to his spiritual children. These are his descendants, sprung not from the flesh only, but who, whether circumcised or not, have followed him in faith. Circumcised as he was, Abraham believed, and this was credited to him as an act of righteousness.

The coming of the Saviour was promised to Abraham and to his descendants for ever. These are the children of promise, to whom it is said: ‘If you belong to Christ, then you are descendants of Abraham, heirs in accordance with the promise.’

23 December

O Emmanuel

O Emmanuel, our king and lawgiver,

the desire of all nations and their Saviour:

Come and save us, O Lord our God.

A reading from Said or Sung by Austin Farrer

The universal misuse of human power has the sad effect that power, however lovingly used, is hated. To confer benefits is surely more godlike than to ask them; yet our hearts go out more easily to begging children than they do to generous masters. We have so mishandled the sceptre of God which we have usurped, we have played providence so tyrannically to one another, that we are made incapable of loving the government of God himself or feeling the caress of an almighty kindness. Are not his making hands always upon us, do we draw a single breath but by his mercy, has not he given us one another and the world to delight us, and kindled our eyes with a divine intelligence? Yet all his dear and infinite kindness is lost behind the mask of power. Overwhelmed by omnipotence, we miss the heart of love. How can I matter to him? we say. It makes no sense; he has the world, and even that he does not need. It is folly even to imagine him like myself, to credit him with eyes into which I could ever look, a heart that could ever beat for my sorrows or joys, a hand he could hold out to me. For even if the childish picture be allowed, that hand must be cupped to hold the universe, and I am a speck of dust on the star-dust of the world.

Yet Mary holds her finger out, and a divine hand closes on it. The maker of the world is born a begging child; he begs for milk, and does not know that it is milk for which he begs. We will not lift our hands to pull the love of God down to us, but he lifts his hands to pull human compassion down upon his cradle. So the weakness of God proves stronger than men, and the folly of God proves wiser than men. Love is the strongest instrument of omnipotence, for accomplishing those tasks he cares most dearly to perform; and this is how he brings his love to bear on human pride; by weakness not by strength, by need and not by bounty.

24 December

Christmas Eve

A Reading from a sermon of Augustine

Awake! For your sake God was made man! ‘Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light.’ For your sake, I say, God was made man.

Eternal death awaited you had he not been born in time. Never would you have been freed from sinful flesh, had he not taken on himself the likeness of sinful flesh. Everlasting would have been your misery, had he not acted in mercy. You would never have returned to life, had he not shared your death. You would have been lost, had he not hastened to your aid. You would have perished, had he not come.

Let us then joyfully celebrate the coming of our salvation and redemption. Let us celebrate the hallowed day on which he who is the great and eternal day came from the great and endless day of eternity into our own short span of time. ‘He has become our righteousness, our sanctification, our redemption, and so, as it is written: Let those who glory, glory in the Lord.’

‘Truth,’ then, ‘has sprung up from the earth.’ Christ who said, ‘I am the truth,’ is born of a virgin. ‘And righteousness has looked down from heaven’: because believing in this new-born child, we are justified not by ourselves but by God. ‘Truth has sprung up from the earth’ because the Word was made flesh. ‘And righteousness has looked down from heaven’ because ‘every good gift and every perfect gift is from above.’ ‘Truth has sprung up from the earth’ – flesh born of Mary. ‘And righteousness has looked down from heaven’ for ‘you can receive nothing unless it has been given you from heaven.’

‘Being justified by faith, let us be at peace with God’ for indeed ‘righteousness and peace have kissed each other’ through our Lord Jesus Christ, for ‘truth has sprung up from the earth.’ Through him we have access to that grace in which we stand, and our boast is in our hope of sharing the glory of God. St Paul does not say at this point ‘our glory’ but ‘the glory of God’; because righteousness has not proceeded from us but has ‘looked down from heaven’. Therefore let those who glory, glory not in themselves, but in the Lord.

For this reason, when our Lord was born of the Virgin, the message of the angels was: ‘Glory to God in the highest, and peace to his people on earth.’ For how could there be peace on earth unless ‘truth has sprung up from the earth’, that is, unless Christ were born of our flesh? And ‘he is our peace who made the two into one’ that we might be people of good will, bound together by the bond of unity.

Beloved, let us then rejoice in this grace, so that our glorying may bear witness to a good conscience, and may we glory, not in ourselves, but in the Lord. That is why Scripture says: ‘He is my glory, the one who lifts up my head.’ For what greater grace could God have made to dawn upon us than to make his only Son become the Son of Man, so that we might in our turn become children and heirs of God? Ask yourselves if this were merited; ask for its reason, for its justification, and see whether you find anything but sheer grace.